Quick Summary
Valve could soon launch its registration program for the Steam Frame VR headset, although a leaker suggests that it'll be priced a lot more than originally hoped.
It's claimed that the virtual reality device could cost as much as $1,500.
There was a lot of excitement when Valve finally announced availability for its Steam Machine, but not so much when it quoted the price. While small, sexy and sleek, the PC console is frankly too expensive for what you get. It hasn't affected sales, but many have already proved you can buy or build more powerful systems for less.
Now it looks set to do the same with its Steam Frame. According to Notebook Check, "Valve insider" Tyler McViker suggests that the imminent VR headset could cost a mighty $1,100 or more. Up to $1,500, in fact.
That would put the un-tethered headset more in the Samsung Galaxy XR category than the Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S – even though it's more a competitor to Meta.
Valve's headset is more powerful than a Quest equivalent, running on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and 16GB of RAM, but the concept is similar. It is more a virtual reality device than augmented, and is primarily designed for gaming.
As with the Quest 3S, AR passthrough is on board but in monochrome. It also has a display with each-eye pixel resolutions that are very close.
You do get Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and Bluetooth 5.4, plus speakers for each ear, but consider that you can score a Meta Quest 3S for under £300 these days, and it's a hard sell on paper.
Of course, we haven't seen the Steam Frame ourselves yet, so can't vouch for the quality. But it does seem to have suffered a similar fate to the Steam Machine – the rising costs of components have likely put it in a whole new price bracket than hoped.
Hopefully, we'll not have too long to wait to find out. Some rumours even suggest that Valve will launch its Steam Frame registration program today, 3 August.
The pricing will then start to make more sense, perhaps.
